The last time I played a game where characters flailed this uselessly was playing T.F.O.S {Teenagers From Outer Space}
hero: 1. legend of a man of great strength and courage, favored by the gods and in part descended from them, often regarded as a half-god & worshiped after his death. 2. any person, especially a man, admired for courage, nobility, or exploits, esp. in war. 3. any person, especially a man, admired for qualities or achievements & seen as an ideal or model. 4. the central male character in a novel, play, poem, etc.with whom the audience is supposed to sympathize 5. the central figure in any important event or period, honored for outstanding qualities. 6. [see] hero sandwich.
heroic: 1. of or characterized by men of godlike strength and courage 2. like or characteristic of a hero or his deeds; strong, brave, noble, powerful, etc.
both taken from the Websters new college dictionary, 3rd ed. p.632
Personally I've always found our cultures devolution of the word hero to be funny... in a depressing sort of way.
I get the "your not a hero" thing... no kidding, if you take an average character with Agility of 9 - 12 and put them in full plate they need to roll a 13 (with no bonuses most of the time; and assuming all other conditions are ideal) to make an easy ability check of 5! That's ridiculously out of whack! I was in the SCA & Ren. Faire for awhile and I've seen folks in battle ready full plate doing flips and cartwheels, etc.
BTW- I think one of the best "fixes" for this aspect is to say that a character trained in the armor has only a -1 to physical checks, while anyone using the armor without training is subject to the full penalty.
As for stat attrition: the solution seems blindingly obvious to me... don't hand out so much permanent statburn & either raise stats or lower DC's a bit; but that would (surprise
) lighten the overall tone and flavor of the game. Since no one is willing to listen on that point, the tone of the debates has switched to the "rabbit out of a hat" style fixes.
Deal with it folks... as written the game creates situations where the characters are flailing about incompetently (like kicked over turtles) for most of the time. Without serious help from the DM, the addition of classes won't change anything; because the challenges grow with level too.
I agree with smathis: such design flaws are lazy and irresponsible though I would add the following: "...if done accidentally; but, if done willfully by the author/designers then it is just plain mean."
I really don't think its too much to ask that an average character have better than 50/50 chance of success in performing their core functions. Average roll on d20 is 10.5 +1 for level and stats =9-12; then cleric/wizard fails to cast against a DC 12; thieves are expected to have to burn luck in order to accomplish the core function of class... necessitating a "luck return" mechanic or the class is useless. Which leaves warriors, who are terrifyingly effective... as long as all they are waring is a loin-cloth.
Don't even get me started on the non-human races... suffice it to say that as written the author should save himself the printing costs...
I don't think there are as many folks grooving on the '70's retro (appendix N) flavors as there are folks who're excited by not being shackled to the Skill/Feat systems of 3e & 4e.
To the folks out there who are taking the hard-line "you are not a hero" approach to the game, I say: Good luck... 'cause you are eventually going to look up from the DM screen and see that you are alone at the table. I know this to be true... I watched it happen to some of the old school OD&D Grognards I knew who refused to adapt to the new environment of gaming.
As a long time player & fan of DCC materials I'm torn up about this: on one hand I see the "ship sailing off a cliff" as it were, and feel compelled to argue against such folly. On the other hand the collector in me thinks that after this gambit craps out it will just make my collection more valuable.